Germany’s Merz vows to fight ‘extremism’ after AfD, far-left election gains

Far-right and far-left parties gain ground in local elections as Merz’s approval rating sinks. Save Share Chancellor ⁠Friedrich Merz has hit out at what he called political “extremism” in Germany after stinging defeats in a local election to the far-right Alternative for ‌Germany party. “This is a task for ⁠our society as ⁠a whole, and it is ⁠one I intend ⁠to play ⁠my part in,” he said on Wednesday at an ‌event in Berlin. Merz said “extremism” was forcefully making its way into the country’s parliaments, a day after a member of the far-right Alternative for ‌Germany (AfD) was elected president of the state parliament inSaxony-Anhaltand the Left Party won out in Berlin’s state election on Sunday. “Anyone who casts their vote for ⁠the AfD is ⁠playing the extremists’ game and undermining credibility,” ⁠Merz said. “In ⁠any case, this is incompatible with the values of ‌my party, the CDU [Christian Democratic Union of Germany].” Despite winning the vote in the September 6 election in the eastern German state, the AfD fell three seats short of the absolute majority that candidate Ulrich Siegmund sought. Founded in 2013 as a eurosceptic movement, the AfD won over voters with an increasingly hardline opposition to immigration after about a million people fled to Germany in 2015, many of them from war-torn Syria. The party has since become a dominant political force in much of eastern Germany, especially among voters disillusioned with mainstream parties, though most traditional parties have pledged not to enter coalitions with the AfD. Merz’s comments followed the far-left Left Party’s victory in the Berlin state election on September 20, in another defeat for the chancellor’s ruling Christian Democrats. Lead ‌candidate Elif Eralpcampaigned on the soaring cost of housing in the German capital and immediately promised to follow through with a pledge to nationalise private housing associations that account for a large share of the city’s housing stock. The result, which roughly doubled the party’s previous score, could see her become the first mayor of Berlin from the Left Party, which grew out of the former East German communist party following the reunification of the country 36 years ago. Eralp, the 45-year-old daughter of left-wing Turkish parents who fled a coup in 1980, said the increasingly difficult rental situation was the biggest social problem in the capital....